Obama urges ‘more effective coordination’ in eurozone

Agence France-Presse

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

President Obama says that the Greek debt crisis has an impact on the US

CHICAGO, United States of America – US President Barack Obama called Monday, May 21, for a “more effective coordination” among eurozone nations as he admitted that the Greek debt crisis has an impact on the United States.

Obama offered to send US technical advisers to a European Union informal summit on Wednesday, aimed at finding ways to revive the eurozone’s sickly economy.

“What is most important is that Europe recognizes this euro project involves more than a currency, it means that there must be more effective coordination” on fiscal and growth policies, Obama said.

Obama was speaking after a two-day NATO summit in Chicago that followed G8 talks at Camp David focused on the eurozone crisis that has threatened to unravel the 17-nation monetary union.

G8 leaders declared at the weekend their desire to see Greece remain in the eurozone as the nation heads towards fresh elections on June 17 after inconclusive polls last week handed big gains to anti-bailout parties.

The political uncertainty in Greece has raised fears that the country could be forced to abandon the euro after a crisis that has festered for more than two years.

With the economy dominating the US presidential election, Obama has pressed Europeans to quickly implement growth policies after two years of a German-led austerity drive that some analysts say is asphyxiating the European economy.

“I’m not going to speculate on what happens if the Greeks choose to exit (the eurozone), because they’ve got an election and this is going to be an important debate inside of Greece,” Obama said.

“And I think it’s important for Greece as a democracy to work through what their options are in a time of great difficulty. What happens in Greece has an impact here in the United States,” he said. – Agence France-Presse

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!